All those Polynesians who never are credited for their marine achievements. The Polynesians had sprit rigs (and multihulls) and sailed to weather for thousands of years (as did the Arabs) whereat the Euros only figured it out a couple hundred years ago.

interesting to note how few of these inspiring people sailed multihulls,mind you much of the pacific would never have been colonised if it were not for the ethnic multi canoe,by people who were true navigators.

which brings me to note two marine archeologists that i,ve been privilidged to meet

dr david lewis and tim severin,and hold in high esteem,for their voyages in medievel vessels.

interesting to note how few of these inspiring people sailed multihulls,mind you much of the pacific would never have been colonised if it were not for the ethnic multi canoe,by people who were true navigators.

which brings me to note two marine archeologists that i,ve been privilidged to meet

dr david lewis and tim severin,and hold in high esteem,for their voyages in medievel vessels.

Ya think - looks like most of them did and Jess has sailed multis - skippered one in the gladstone race last year.

Truly inspirational people are inspirational because of what they do and how they do it, not how many hulls they have or which way they dress.

Age of discovery is an established European point of view accepted by the rest of the world as such..

Sorry nick, not only not accepted here but the High Court of Australia has ruled 20 odd years ago that the concept of Terra Nullius, the idea that places were not owned prior to little white men coming along, was not a valid view of history.

All the Dutch and Pommies did was find something that was already inhabited and already functional.

The only real discovery in the last thousand years was probably Aotearoa, uninhabited till the polynesian people sailed some multihulls there.

Ahem - no one needed to discover the americas - they weren't lost, had people living there and everything. Thats like saying Cook discovered Australia. He was in fact about 40,000 years too late.

The Asian's discovered America when they crossed the Alaska/Russia land bridge.

__________________Faithful are the Wounds of a Friend, but the Kisses of the Enemy are Deceitful! ........
A nation of sheep breeds a government of wolves!
Unprepared boaters, end up as floatsum!.......

Sorry nick, not only not accepted here but the High Court of Australia has ruled 20 odd years ago that the concept of Terra Nullius, the idea that places were not owned prior to little white men coming along, was not a valid view of history.

All the Dutch and Pommies did was find something that was already inhabited and already functional.

The only real discovery in the last thousand years was probably Aotearoa, uninhabited till the polynesian people sailed some multihulls there.

Oh, why the ref to owning or not owning. I am talking about the age of discovery. Like the Dutch discovered what is called Australia today but they never owned it or attempted to own it. No Europeans knew about it before that moment. Check your Australian encyclopedia; it wil have it because as I said, it is accepted wordwide just like bronze age etc.

I believe it was actually Bjarni Herjólfsson who was the first European to sight North America. It was something of an accident as he had been blown off course by a storm whilst sailing to Greenland. He eventually found his way back to Greenland. Leif bought Bjarni´s ship and sailed off to find the land Bjarni had spotted and was subsequently successful and probably the first European to land in North America.

__________________
'Tis evening on the moorland free,The starlit wave is still: Home is the sailor from the sea, The hunter from the hill.

I believe it was actually Bjarni Herjólfsson who was the first European to sight North America. It was something of an accident as he had been blown off course by a storm whilst sailing to Greenland. He eventually found his way back to Greenland. Leif bought Bjarni´s ship and sailed off to find the land Bjarni had spotted and was subsequently successful and probably the first European to land in North America.

What about Thor Heyerdahl's later speculations that other ancient civilizations made seafaring voyages, such as the North Africans/Egyptians, as he explored in his Ra Expedition. Trying to cross the Atlantic in a reed boat is almost crazier than crossing the Pacific on a balsa raft! But he swore that the Egyptians discovered South America first and that's why the pre-columbian indians built pyramids.

Location: Northern British Columbia, part of the time in Prince Rupert and part of the time on Moresby Island.

Boat: 50-ft steel Ketch

Posts: 1,885

Re: Top Ten Most Inspirational Sailors

Heyerdahl showed it would have been possible to reach S. America in a reed boat (although the Egyptians also had timbered merchant ships for Med. trading expeditions from the old Kingdom onwards), had they a reason to sail out to the Atlantic. On the whole, the scientific community has remained skeptical of Heyerdahl's theory that Egyptian pyramid building influenced Central and South America.

__________________
'Tis evening on the moorland free,The starlit wave is still: Home is the sailor from the sea, The hunter from the hill.

The question was regarding "inspirational" not "historical". I am sure the Brit's were well inspired when a few of my ancestors decided to sail on over to Jolly Ol' England to vacation in Lindisfarne. That I consider historical and not inspirational. After all, taking leave to "vacation" in Lindisfarne is not on my bucket list because of what a few sailors did in 793.

__________________

__________________
It didn't sink all the way - you can still see the mast